Counties rally opposition to beach takeover legislation

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Sponsors tout the bill as potentially clearing the way for a regional approach to fortifying against major storms and leading the way to having a single beach badge issued by the county, good in any town, at possibly a lower price for access than available now. Also, local officials would no longer have to worry about maintaining the tourist areas in the summer months.

Jeff Tittel, state director of Sierra Club, called the opposition from local governments “shortsighted.”

“It has made no sense to have to buy beach badges in each town. Also there is no comprehensive approach to beach management and restoration,” Tittel says.

TRENTON – Having a single beach badge issued by a county and deploying regional resources to protect the coast against major storms may look like a win-win, but not to local government leaders.

Action on a Senate bill that would make it possible for Shore towns to relinquish control of their beaches to the counties was halted Monday in response to a protest from Monmouth County Administrator Teri O’Connor, who said the proposal “is not the type of enhanced role that Monmouth County or our municipalities desire.”

In a letter to Senate Environment Committee Chairman Bob Smith, D-17, O’Connor said Monmouth and the three other counties that are the subject of bill S-2171 — Ocean, Atlantic and Cape May — don’t have the personnel or other resources to create beach authorities.

O’Connor also expressed concern that beachfront towns could be starved of revenue that they would lose if counties took over beach tag sales.

“The four counties share core opposition issues,” O’Connor wrote.

Smith held the bill from a scheduled public hearing and said he plans to meet with O’Connor and officials from the other three counties “to discuss concerns and compromises,” he said.

Jeff Tittel, state director of the Sierra Club, called the delay “disappointing” and said his organization “strongly supports” having a single entity take care of beach fees, beach improvement, maintenance and dune construction.

“There would be cost savings if you operated the beaches countywide, versus town-by-town, and people could buy one beach pass and use it in multiple places,” Tittel said. “Right now if you go on Long Beach Island, and go from one end to the other, you have to buy eight different beach passes. If you had one county pass, it’d be a lot cheaper to take care of the beaches and hire the lifeguards and everything else.”

O’Connor is not the first local official to push back against the bill. Officials from Belmar, Spring Lake, Manasquan and elsewhere have ripped the proposal. The Ocean County freeholders approved a resolution opposing the legislation.

“This is the typical parochial interests that end up costing people more money and hurting our economy,” said Tittel, who said the shared-services approach to beach management is successful in other states.

“In New Jersey it’s been more about politics rather than what’s right for tourism and what’s right for our beaches,” he added.

O’Connor did not attend the committee hearing and was not available for further comment, but Monmouth County spokeswoman Laura Kirkpatrick said, “Monmouth County is investigating the impact and implications of being responsible for the operation of the 27 miles of oceanfront beaches.”

Smith said he and the bill’s other primary sponsor, Sen. Kip Bateman, R-Somerset, are hopeful they can bring the bill back for a committee hearing July 21 in Toms River.